PROVIDENCE — Heavy rain overwhelmed streets in Rhode Island on Monday during a high-rate rainfall event that the National Weather Service and state officials warned New Englanders about days in advance.
On Pleasant Valley Parkway, city services deployed snowplows to try to push the rainwater off the road and into already overflowing drains. Instead, the plows drove water onto the sidewalks and lawns, and rainwater quickly flowed back onto the flooded road around and behind the plows.
Just after noon, the National Weather Service said that cars were trapped in floodwater on the Wilbur Avenue Bridge, and on Narragansett Avenue in Providence. City police reported about a foot of water on some downtown streets, and Cranston Park Avenue at Southern Street was impassable due to flooding.
In Central Falls and Pawtucket, stormwater bubbled from manhole covers on the street and water rushed down the road around vehicles.
According to the weather service, northwest Providence had 2.53 inches of rainfall, while T.F. Green International Airport reported 1.91, and North Central State Airport reported 1.89 inches. The University of Rhode Island Peckham Farms in Kingston reported 1.50 inches of precipitation.
Fernando Mota, who has lived in the 600 block of Pleasant Valley Parkway for five years, told the Globe that at least four or five cars a year have been caught in flooding on his street. Most, Mota said, appear to be people passing through the Elmhurst neighborhood. He tries to wave them off but often it’s too late.
“I actually put out markers in my front yard,” Mota said. “The markers are there so that drivers know that’s a lawn because the water gets so high that they can’t even tell the difference between the actual road and where my lawn starts.”
On Monday, Mota and his neighbor Caroline Moore were outside assisting a driver in a Jeep Cherokee who tried unsuccessfully to ford the street. It was at least the third car to be stranded in the flooding this week.
Close to two feet of water rose around the SUV, leaving the three occupants stuck inside with their feet in puddles of water, waiting for the floodwater to recede. Neighbors helped them out of the vehicle and another towed the Jeep out.
“They think I’m exaggerating and they just continue through,” Mota said. “Some cars can make it, like those big trucks. But the problem is that the water gets pushed towards our homes when they’re driving through and that causes an issue. The water gets into our homes.”
Moore said the flooding seems to happen after every intense rainstorm these days. The curve of the road fools drivers into thinking it’s shallow.
“They don’t anticipate the water getting deeper,” Moore said. “So what starts off as about an inch or two can sometimes be almost two feet.”
Moore and Mota said they don’t know the answer to the problem. One idea that gets thrown around is making the stream that runs alongside the Parkway a little bit deeper, or adding plants around the creek. They haven’t heard from city officials about what can be done.
Before the storm started, Department of Public Works vehicles were in the area, along with a snow plow.
The plow was used last week to push water off the street back into the overflowing canal. But neighbors gave the idea mixed reviews, noting that their lawns were soaked in the plow-induced tsunami.
Providence Director of Communication Patricia Socarras said in an email that in preparation for the rainstorm, the Department of Public Works personnel went to flooding-prone areas to clear drains and catch basins. Two city plow trucks were activated and additional personnel were stationed all over the city with a concentration on Eddy Street, Charles Street, and Pleasant Valley Parkway. The fire and police departments responded to areas of flooding throughout the city as needed.
Video from resident Renee Besette shows the plow moving toward her house on Pleasant Valley Parkway on Monday, creating a fast-moving wake of water close to 100 feet wide that pounded lawns like a sea swell.
NWS meteorologist Andy Nash, who was concerned on Monday about another quick inch of rain from storms forming over Connecticut, said there are signs those storms won’t get far enough east to affect Rhode Island, and may dissipate before reaching places that received heavy rains earlier.
“Chances of additional flooding seem to be lowering,” Nash said.
The latest weather models show that a band of thunderstorms stretching from Central Massachusetts into Eastern Connecticut may go another 30 to 40 miles east before dissipating, which would be “great news” for Northern Rhode Island and the Providence area, the weather service forecast discussion said as of 4:05 p.m. Rain could dissipate between 6 to 7 p.m. and give way to partly cloudy skies and a low around 66 overnight. There is a 30 percent chance of rain late of less than a tenth of an inch. There could still be a rogue shower or two through midnight.
Tuesday’s forecast calls for mostly sunny skies, a high near 86, and west winds around 11 mph.
This story has been updated with comments from city Director of Communications Patricia Socarras.
Carlos Muñoz can be reached at carlos.munoz@globe.com. Follow him @ReadCarlos and on Instagram @Carlosbrknews.